Early Lakefront Aviation

Meigs Field is an important part of Chicago’s history. Daniel
J. Burnham and Edward Bennett, creators of the 1909 Plan of Chicago and designer of much of the city’s
lakefront park system, realized the importance of traffic management and the
need for balance between commons and commerce.

Many Chicagoans are not aware of aviation's long and
colorful history on Chicago's lakefront. The very earliest flights in Chicago
took place in Grant Park, adjacent to Meigs' present location. In 1910, Walter
Brookins made Chicago's first flight from the park.

Walter Brookins
prepares for the record-setting first flight over Chicago. Grant Park,
1910.

The very next year Grant Park hosted the International Air
Meet of 1911, at which numerous records for duration, altitude and speed were
set. Over 600,000 attended the event daily.

Cal Rogers flies over the
Chicago lakefront during the 1911 International Air Meet in Grant Park.

In 1918, the first air mail flight to Chicago landed in
Grant Park. The following year, Grant Park became the site of the first
scheduled flights to and from Chicago as regular air mail service was
instituted.

Air mail pilots Ed Gardner and
Max Miller inaugurated air mail service between New York and Chicago's Grant
Park in 1918.

The same year, City fathers, realizing the need for
convenient air access to the downtown business district began to debate
possible locations for a downtown airport. Grant Park was less than suitable,
not only because an airport would usurp its role as the City's premiere park,
but because the proximity of buildings would make approaches and departures
difficult as larger and faster aircraft became common.

"Chicago Plan" Author Supported Meigs' Siting

On July 4, 1909, Daniel H. Burnham and Edward Bennett presented
their MASTER PLAN of Chicago to the City of Chicago.

Burnham's plan called for 4 outlying recreational islands and 2
1 mile long piers. These would welcome people coming into the city by boat as
well as provide recreation facilities for Chicago's inhabitants.

Daniel
Burnham's Plan of Chicago - 1909

The Plan of Chicago--authored by Daniel H. Burnham, and
Edward J. Bennett and published in 1909 by the Commercial Club of
Chicago--became the blueprint for Chicago's wonderful existing string of
lakefront parks and beaches. The Plan contained no mention of airports--they had
not yet been invented--but it did include lakefront transportation facilities,
including what is now Navy Pier.

The "Burnham Plan" of
Chicago included lakefront transportation facilities like this one that
eventually became Navy Pier.

Burnham died in 1912, but news articles
recently discovered by the Friends of Meigs Field show that only four short
years later, Burnham's partner Edward H. Bennett himself advocated that the
city's downtown airport be located on the Meigs site.

Click to read quote by Edward Bennett,
co-author of the Plan of Chicago, advocating an airport at Meigs' location

"The lake front appears to offer a site
naturally adapted for [airport] terminal facilities," a 1916
Bennett letter is quoted in the Chicago Tribune on July 13, 1919. "A
site on the lake front would appear also to be more conveniently placed than any
other large area available within a short distance of the central business
district."

Consensus in the '20's

In 1920, the Chicago public approved a bond referendum to pay
for construction of Chicago's lakefront. Construction began on Northerly Island
in 1922, the same year that Mayor William Hale Thompson advocated locating the
downtown airport there.

By the late 1920's consensus had grown. The South Park
Commission had voted to place Chicago's downtown airport on Northerly Island.

The business community concurred. The Chicago Association of
Commerce, in it's 1928 publication "Chicago--The Aeronautical Center"
declared that:

Page from "Chicago--The
Aeronautical Center", planning in 1928 for a lakefront airport on Northerly
Island.

"The city of Chicago has recently taken steps that are expected to lead
to an early agreement between the city, the South Park Commissioners and other
parties to the Lake Front Improvement Ordinance of 1919 which will make it
possible for the South Park Commissioners to proceed with the actual
construction of the airport."

Depression stalls plans

When the Great Depression hit in 1929, many grand civic plans
were put on hold. The plan for Chicago's downtown airport was postponed but
construction began on the first island, named Northerly Island. A Planetarium
was to be constructed on this island as well as an Aquarium on the Shore. Today
we know these as the Adler
Planetarium and the Shedd
Aquarium.

Construction of
Northerly Island.

Then, in a bold move to pull itself up by its bootstraps,
Chicago decided to host a world's fair. In 1933, the Century of Progress fair
opened on Chicago's lakefront, built on Northerly Island and the south
lakefront. The World's Fair titled A
CENTURY OF PROGRESS celebrating Chicago's 100th birthday and received more
than 39 million visitors during its two years of activity. This was a giant
success just as the previous World Fair of 1893, THE
COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

Aviation was a theme of the fair, with aircraft of all types
featured. The arrival of Italo Balbo's aerial flotilla to the fair was
commemorated with a monument that still stands in Burnham Park across the harbor
from Meigs Field.

Blimps and airplanes plied the skies over the fair; one
attraction featured seaplane rides in Sikorsky S-38's owned by Pal-Waukee
Airport.

Century of Progress
Worlds Fair - 1933

Shortly after the fair closed in 1934, plans were made for a
lakefront airport. The Chicago City Council and Illinois State Legislatures
passed resolutions to create the airport and plans were advanced for as many as
3 runways for the airport. Yet the combination of a poor economy, uncertainty
over world events, and mixed civic feelings over the use of the lakefront for an
airport delayed construction.

In 1941, a report of the Chicago Aero Commission recommended
once again that the downtown airport be located on or near Northerly Island.

Page from 1941 Aero Commission
plan showing the planned lakefront airport as one of "Three Central Air
Terminals"

Airport Opens

Finally, in 1946, the years of waiting ended. The decision
to build an airport on Northerly Island was finalized, a long term lease with
the Chicago Park District--successor to the South Park Commission--was signed,
and construction begun.

The size of Northerly Island in 1946 was not sufficient to
accommodate the advances in aircraft and airport designs since construction of
the original landfill, so the Illinois state legislature granted an additional
24 acres of lake bottom, nearly 1/3 of Meigs' current area, specifically for construction
of an airport.

The construction took over two years, culminating with a
grand opening on Friday, December 10, 1948. Despite sub-freezing temperatures,
the opening was attended by nearly 100 aircraft, including over 75 Flying
Farmers.

The celebration was attended by many city and aviation
leaders, including Mayor Kennelly, Merrill C. Meigs, and W. Stuart Symington,
Secretary of the Air Force. Festivities included the dropping of 51 glass
bottles containing store gift certificates into Chicago's harbor from a Cessna
170 flown by Mr. & Mrs. John Wilson of Lockport, IL.

Aerial view of Meigs Field not
long after its opening in 1948.

"Brass Hats" at opening

According to the Chicago Tribune, the best speech of the
day was made by Lee Talladay, a Flying Farmer from Milan, MI.

"I didn't expect when I got up and milked the cows at
4 o'clock this morning to be rubbing elbows over lunch with the brass hats
from Washington and the tycoons from Chicago's State Street stores. But that
just shows what can happen when aviation really comes into its own as it has
in this small instance of Chicago's lake front strip," said Talladay.

Years later, after the senior Burnham's death, his son, Daniel J. Burnham,
Jr.--a well-known city planner of his own right--included Meigs Field as a
comprehensive regional airway structure in his 1956 Planning the Region of
Chicago.

More Recent History

In later years, the runway was lengthened to its present 3,900
feet. The present passenger terminal was added in 1961. Today, it is estimated
that Meigs Field contributes a minimum of 1,500 jobs and $57.3 million annually
to the local economy.

Meigs Field, which temporarily closed in 1996, was reopened in early 1997
thanks in large part to efforts by the Friends of Meigs Field. An agreement,
between Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois Governor Jim Edgar preserved
the airport for five years, until the year 2002, at which time the City was to
once again revisit the issue.

Then, in 2001, with regional airport congestion and flight
delays at an all-time high, after a series of major public hearings, Mayor Daley
and then-governor George Ryan reached a comprehensive agreement to expand O'Hare
airport with 4 new runways, build a new airport in the south suburbs, and
preserve Meigs Field for 24 years until 2026 (unless the state legislature voted
to close it earlier after 2006.)

Airport supporters rejoiced.

Meigs Field as it appeared
before its destruction in March 2003.

Midnight Demolition

Yet, just a few weeks after being re-elected,
Mayor Daley ordered an illegal midnight bulldozing of Meigs' runways, failing to
give proper notice and even stranding over a dozen aircraft on the ground at the
airport. As of this writing, the mayor and the City of Chicago are under
federal investigation for misuse of federal aviation funds for the demolition.

On the night of March 30, 2003, Mayor Daley
destroyed Meigs Field
under police guard and cover of darkness, without public input.

The mayor's announced reasoning for the closure
was to somehow prevent terrorists from mounting an attack on downtown Chicago,
but the true reason was to fulfill his long dream of converting Meigs to a park.

When it was announced that the Chicago Park
District would seek public input into developing the Meigs property, the Friends
of Meigs Field created a proposal, "Parks and Planes", a
compromise proposal that would return aircraft to the lakefront, add 18-25 acres
of parkland, create a new air museum for the Chicago Museum Campus, and provide
millions of dollars for parks across the city.

The Friends of Meigs Field have developed a
proposal for a combination park, airstrip, air museum.

To date, the Chicago Park District has ignored
and suppressed this proposal, despite public opinion polls that consistently
have supported Meigs Field over a park since 1996.

Updated, 3/2005

Park History

Airport History

Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago proposes
a string of islands from 12th Street to Jackson Park. (No
airports are included in the Plan, but Burnham proposes an extensive
transportation complex on the lakefront for steamer freight…later
became Navy Pier.)

1938

1941

1946

Airport approved by Chicago City
Council--construction begins. 24 acres of additional lakebottom are
granted by the state legislature for landfill for the new runway.
50-year lease granted by Chicago Park District to City of Chicago.